Jax Build Guide by Ss95

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my new Jax guide. I have put a lot of work into this guide and I am always looking to improve. Therefor feel free to give my guide constructive criticism, but I am not looking for troll voters. If you approve of my guide, feel free to upvote and comment. If you dislike, feel free to downvote and tell me what you dislike. But please tell me what you dislike before you downvote so I perhaps can explain why I have done as I have.

And remember: This is just a game. Have fun and stop flaming! :)

Ps. I am not the strongest jungler (my main focus is on top lane) but i will try to explain my experience with jungle anyways.

pps. I am from Denmark so i might have done some misspelling. Just write it down in the comments and i will correct it.

Pro/Cons

Skills

Relentless Assault is Jax passive and it's perfect with your ultimate. For each time you hit an enemy you hit faster. This stacks 6 times. At level 1 it's 4%. This increases with 2% each 3 levels.

Leap strike is Jax q ability and it makes you able to jump an enemy, a friendly target or even a ward. This is a great tool for engaging or escaping. This your gap closer and therefor excellent for ganking
Cost: 65 mana
Range: 700
Cooldown:10/9/8/7/6 second
Damage: 70/110/150/190/230 (+0,6 ability power, + 1 bonus attack damage)


Empower is Jax w ability and it's your main damage spell. It resets your auto-attacks so you want to use it between auto-attacks to do max damage.
Cost: 30 mana
Range: Melee
Cooldown: 7/6/5/4/3 seconds
Damage: 40/75/110/145/180 (+0,6 ability power)

Counter strike is Jax e ability and it makes you dodge every attack and deals more damage for each attack dodged. This is your main ganking ability because it's your only stun. When you use it, it's on for 2 sec but you can choose to use it and stun whenever you want to. For each attack you dodge counter strike deals additional 20% damage up to a maximum of 100%
Range: AOE 375
Cost: 70/75/80/85/90
Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 seconds
Damage: 50/75/100/125/150 (+0,5 bonus attack damage)

Grandmaster's might is Jax ultimate and it gets you more armor and magic resistance depending on your attack damage and your magic damage. Armor scales with attack damage and magic resistance scales with ability power. Besides this you make a power attack every 3 hit. This is a passive and you don't have to use the ability to get it. This hit scales with ability power

The active:
Duration: 8 sec
Cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 80 sec
Armor bonus: 25/35/45 (+0,3 bonus attack damage)
Magic resistance: 25/35/45 (+0,2 ability power)

The passive:
Damage on each 3 hit: 100/160/220 (+0,7 ability power)

Runes

Greater Seal of Armor: 90% of the top laners I meet are attack damage. So the early armor helps a lot

Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Better poke, better lasthitting

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Better survivability late game. You could run Greater Glyph of Magic Resist if you wish to.

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Even more poke early game, i usually have around 80 attack damage level 1.

Masteries

Now let me explain why i run those and.

When i play Jax i tend to play very aggressive. Jax is an excellent duelist and excels in 1v1. So i wanna deal some early damage and try to build an advantage.

Offensive:

Summoner's Wrath : 5 attack damage and 5 ability power each time there is cooldown on ignite for 1 point. Perfect for Jax because he is hybrid.

Brute Force : You can either choose this or Mental Force but i find Brute Force more effective early game. It makes last hitting easier, and you can harass for more each time you opponent go for last hits. Of course Mental Force makes Empowermore powerful, but you Jax is mana hungry and therefor you don't want to waste too much mana early game.

Butcher : For lasthitting.

Alacrity : Scales perfectly with Relentless Assault and Grandmaster's Might

Weapon Expertise : Give 10% armor penetration. I would love to get the 10% magic penetration from Arcane Knowledge too but i simply don't have the points.

Deadliness : More attack damage. Yes please.

Vampirism : Jax have no inbuilt sustain so 3% is actually quite good. I know it doesn't sound like much but it will help you in the long run.

Sunder : I focus more on attack damage early on and i have to armor penetration in my runes so i want as much as i can get.

Executioner : 6% more damage against targets with below 40% hp for 1 point. A very good one.


Defensive:

Hardiness : or Resistance . Depends on your opponent. If you run blind pick i would recommend Hardiness because most top laners are attack damage.

Tough Skin : When you attack someone close to enemy minions you will "taunt" the minions. Early game minions can hurt you. A lot. Therefor you wanna be able to trade better close to minions.

Vigor More sustain = More time in lane. You can run with Durability instead if you want to.

Utility:

Summoner's Insight Tell me, how many times did you die or someone escaped because you had like 10 sec cooldown on your flash? Never again!

Items

Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads: If you're against a heavy AD team always go Ninja Tabi but if you're against a heavy cc or a heavy AP team go Mercury's Treads

Sheen: Get early for more burst. Especially against champions like Wukong where you need to give some burst damage instead of sustained damage.

Phage: Very good against champions like Riven or Gangplank who you need to slow down to catch.

Bilgewater Cutlass: Always good to get early. Lifesteal + 150 damage/slow every minute. A very strong but expensive item.

Trinity Force: A very strong item for Jax. Gives you a strong burst, a slow, movement speed, hit points, mana, attack speed, critical strike, ability power and attack damage. A must have in most situations.

Hextech Gunblade: Gives 300 damage and slow every minute + it gives lifesteal AND spellvamp. Very strong for hybrid Jax.

Guardian Angel: Only get this if you're doing good or at least equal to the enemy team. If not get more offensive/flat defensive items. This item just gives you a second chance which can be critical in an even match.

Maw of Malmortius: Very good for Jax. A mix of offensive and defensive stats. The passive scales with well with Jax's abilities.

Frozen Heart: Very strong against the enemy AD carry. The slow is (in my opinion) much better than Thornmail because most AD carry with properly just lifesteal the damage back.

Wriggle's Lantern If you have problems with survivability in lane or you are jungling. It gives you a free ward, a lot of pushing/farm the jungle potential and some armor and life steal.

Summoners

For lane:



Ignite is very good for early kills and counter champions like Dr. Mundo and [[Swain].



Flash is a very good escaping/chasing tool. You can flash over a wall, flash-jump someone, or flash in the middle of the enemy team and stun them all.

Alternatives:



Ghost is a very strong summoner spell and very good for chasing. The reason why i use flash is because Ghost is more obvious. When you use it you can only run straight. With Flash you can flash over walls etc.




Exhaust is very good on Jax. It makes Jax even more scary in a 1v1. I have never been able to decide if i like Ignite or Exhaust most.



Cleanse is a very underused summoner spell but nonetheless a very strong one. A stun on Jax shuts down the stacks on his ultimate AND his passive. With a fast Cleanse you can prevent this. It's also effective to survive CC ganks or get out of those annoying Amumu or Galio ultimates.

For jungle:



Smite is a must have on a jungler. Use this to clear camps faster, steal buffs, steal or secure baron and dragon.

Lane

Early game 1-10 starts when you enter the game:
Before the lane starts here is a little trick for you. Start buying the standard boots + health pots and then go to defend your jungler. Then go to back to base around 1:24. The moment you then have 35 gold you buy your 4 healing pot and run straight to lane. This way, you get an advantage (most top laners only has 3 healing potions) and you'll not even miss a single creep.

Farm, farm, farm. Keep farming early game. When you're level 3 use Counter Strike and Leap Strike in. Then auto-attack once, use Empower and back out. Keep repeating but watch out for your mana. Always have mana to jump to creeps or stun the enemy jungler. When you're level 6 start to smash your opponent. You shouldn't really loose any 1v1 so try to zone your enemy as early as possible.

Mid game 11-18 starts around 20 min:

In mid game you keep farming, taking objectives (mentioned in the "Objectives" section), and killing the enemy team. You might start teaming up now and start pushing lanes or maybe even do a baron attempt. Jax is insanely strong in mid game so use this to your advantage.

Late starts around 40 min:

Now you will start to push, baiting, trapping and teamfighting (read my teamfight sector for more info about teamfights. Secure as many objectives you can but after 40 min, remember that dragon is almost useless and Baron is not that important anymore. But still try to stop your enemy from getting it!

Champions who's hard to counter:
Olaf: Olaf true damage so strong and he is a pain to lane against. Try to poke him each time he used his true damage and call for gank. The important part when fighting Olaf is actually to fight him. Because each time you go for last hits he'll just smash you with his true damage.

Malphite: Malphite is dangerous. Early game he'll just spam his harass and try to get you low and you can't turn to harass him because of his shield. Play passively till 6 and get some magic resistance. Then, after level 6, you can try to fight him but be careful! Malphite is the hardest counter to Jax right now because of the attack speed slow.

Pantheon: A good Pantheon is a pain in the *** early game because he is so damn strong. Just farm and wait. Try to fight him back level 6 and get some armor.

Teemo: Teemo is just plain annoying. His ability to make you miss ****s you up and if you walk in to a shroom, expect to be under 50% when you escape.

Mordekaiser: Mordekaisers shield shuts down Jax. After level 6 you want to harass a lot but Mordekaisers shield prevent this. Besides, each time you go for a last hit you'll take a lot of damage.

Kennen: Impossible to catch and a lot of poke from a distant. This lane should be around even maybe a little bit in kennen's favor.

Jungle

When i jungle i usually go with Boots of Speed and 3 healing potions because i tend to gank a lot as Jax. But i would recommend Cloth Armor or Vampiric Scepter when you don't play with friends because you need to make sure you get a strong pull if you have Boots of Speed
When i jungle i usually go wolves --> blue buff --> wraiths --> red buff --> Golems

After blue buff i usually try to gank once with my Leap Strike and Counter Strike and then i gank again after double golems.

Whenever i pass a lane where there is a possibility for ganks i use it and invade whenever you see the enemy jungler (if he is in top jungle invade bot jungle etc.)

Spawn times:

Wolves: 1 min

Wraiths: 1 min

Golems: 1 min

Blue buff: 5 min

Red buff: 5 min

Dragon: 6 min

Baron: 7 min

The key to jungling is having a good map awareness. You have to be able to coordinate gank, come to the right lanes at the right time etc.

Also check out Who is your jungler and what does he do?
All credit goes to Hahano for this guide.

If you want to know HOW you gank check this guide

Farming

Being a good lasthitter and getting a fed early is your goal. When you farm don't just attack minions for several reasons. You'll push (i will explain in-depth when it is good to push) and you'll most likely not even get half the creeps. So when you farm, run around behind your minions and wait for their hit points to drop. Then when you can 1 hit them you walk in close, give them 1 auto-attack and then back out again. When you farm, always beware of your opponent, because he will most likely try to poke you when you walk in close.

A few facts about minions

Caster minions:
Initially worth 16 gold but increases with 0,5 gold each 3 min


Melee minions:
Initially worth 22 gold but increases with 0,5 gold each 3 min.

Siege minions:
Initially worth 27 gold but increases with 1 gold each 3 min.

Super minions:
Same as Siege minions just stronger


See also Ciderhelm's minion guide

Objectives

There is 6 main objectives in league of legends (besides winning of course)

Turret: When you destroy a turret you give 150 to all members of your team

Inhibitors: Inhibitors only gives 50 gold when destroyed but you will spawn super minions which makes pushing much easier

Blue buff gives a mana/energy regen buff and a cooldown buff. Very strong to have and when possible you should try to steal the enemy blue buff. If you kill an enemy having this buff, you'll get the buff full duration. The duration of the buff is 2:30. The spawn time of the buff is 5 min.

Red buff gives a buff which slows and gives damage. This buff should also be stolen when possible and you'll recieve it yourself if you kill an enemy who has this buff. The spawn time is 5 min and the duration is 2:30.

Dragon gives 190 gold for your entire team.

Baron Nashor gives the strongest buff in the game. You get a lot of regeneration and 40 AD and 40 AP. The spawn time is 7 min and you get 300 gold for your whole team in you kill Baron. The duration for the buff is 4 min but if you kill an enemy with this buff you won't get the buff yourself


If you have to trade objectives:

Baron is worth the same as inhibitors because both gives pushing power. Of course it depends on your situation but generally it's worth the same. You just have to remember that baron gives a lot of gold too so it's not always worth trading baron for inhibitor.

In my oppinion blue buff is worth slightly more than red buff because of the huge cooldown reduction and the huge regeneration which open up the possibility for more poke and faster push

Dragon is worth slightly more than turrets. Turrets gives only 150 gold to each player and dragon gives 190 gold to each player. But you don't have to defend a dragon age later in the game it's easy to push down the turrets.

Warding

Warding guide

This is a very decent video showing where and why to ward. If you're not very interrested in why you should in these specific locations this picture shows it very well

Wards are also very important for Jax for a very special reason. Jax's Leap Strike makes him able to jump to a ward.

Jax Ward-jump

Ganking

Jax is a scary ganker and it doesn't matter if you're jungler or top laner. If you see an opportunity to gank, use it. Use Counter Strike run close and use Leap Strike. Auto-attack once and then immediately use Empower. This should hopefully result in either a flash or a kill.

If you are top and your mid laner is pushed to his turret, try to push your own opponent to his turret, then run down mid and try to gank. Then 2 things can happen:

You gank and therefor take the pressure off you mid laner
He sees you because of ward and run away, but that still takes the pressure off your midlaner and he can start pushing the other way.

You should also look to roam if you're loosing your lane hard and your opponent is denying you farm. Because then you should try to make your other lanes get ahead.

Teamfights

Teamfights is where most games are decided. Most people thinks that their goal in a teamfight is to get kills. That is not always YOUR job in the teamfight. Before the fight starts look at your AD carry and you AP carry. Are they fed? How are their AD and AP carries compared to your own? Because Jax excels at killing other AD and AP carries people tends to forget how good he is at protecting his own. In late game don't be stupid and jump in. Defend your own AD carry and wait for their carries to get our of position. Then you can jump them. But always remember: Do not jump ahead of your team. Because suddenly you risk standing surrounded by 5 enemies and that tends to get ugly...

Of course if the enemies AD or AP carry is very fed compared to you, you only have 1 job. Kill him or at least draw his fire for as long as possible.

Pushing

Pushing is the hard part of top lane and there is some advantages and disadvantages of pushing. When you push you open up the possibility for the enemy jungler to gank you and, if you're weaker than your opponent, the enemy can deny you creep by standing in front of the creeps. But to force your enemy to farm under turret is also effective because he'll most likely miss some creeps.

So you should push when:
-When you go back, because it prevents your enemy to push till your own turret
-When your enemy go back to base. This denies him a lot of creeps
-When your jungler is close around level 10 or so. Then you can easily dive him.


You shouldn't push when:
-You're ahead. If you're ahead you should freeze the lane close to your own turret so your enemy can't farm.
-If you have no ward and you fear the enemy jungler
-If you're weaker than your enemy. Then he'll just freeze his lane close to his turret and you will come even further behind.

CLG Wickd and CLG Snoopeh

I highly recommend to watch CLG Wickd. Wickd is currently playing for the european CLG and he is (in my oppinion) the best top laner EU. So go and watch him, trust me, you'll learn a lot.

Wickd's livestream

If you're more into jungling go watch CLG Snoopeh. He is also playing for the european CLG and is a very strong jungler.

Snoopeh's livestream

Thanks to..

Thanks to CLG Wickd for learning me the top lane mechanics.
Thanks to CLG Snoopeh for learning me the jungle mechanics
Thanks to JhoiJhoi. Her epic guide "how to make a guide" can be found here
Thanks to Synagami for his jungle pictures. Here is his guide Synagami's jungle guide
Thanks to Hahano for his guide about jungling
Thanks to TeamLolgasm for their Warding guide. All credit should go to TeamLoLgasm and should be directed to them and not me.
Thanks to Phreak for making me want to play Jax with his awesome spotlight
Thanks to KuryokuVideos for his Jax Ward-Jumps
Thanks to Houston Bulanadi for his warding picture. Here is a link to his guide
Thanks to Ciderhelm for his minion guide
Thanks to IceCreamy for her guide how to make columns
Thanks to Crisis for some tips. Take a look at his Alistar build
Thanks to RiceEskimo for his how to gank guide